AP

Psalm 119:96-97   To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless.  Oh, how I love your law!  I meditate on it all day long.

Psalm 119 consists of 22 sets of 8 verses, the verses in each set beginning with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  The mathematically-minded will notice, therefore, that verse 96 belongs to the set beginning with the 12th letter of the alphabet (lamedh) and verse 97 belongs to the 13th set (mem).

Nevertheless, I think for our purposes we can take them together.  They give us a feeling for just what God’s written Word meant to the Psalmist!  He will say at the beginning of the next section (nun – verse 105) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”  To him, God’s revealed truth is so important for his daily living, and so wonderful, that he doesn’t have words to describe it adequately; it is even more wonderful than ‘perfect/complete’!

He forces me to ask myself, “Is that how I see God’s Word?  Is God’s revealed truth absolutely central to every part of my life – my thinking, my reasoning, my behaviour, my relationships?  Is this reflected in the amount of time and energy I devote to reading it and meditating on it, in letting it mould me to the shape God wants me to be?  Do I subject all human ‘wisdom’ to it, or do I try to manipulate God’s Word to make it fit in with the claims of modern ‘science’ (many of which can only ever be ’theories’) or the dictates of our present culture?

Do I regularly sit under the faithful preaching of it, and take opportunities to share in regular group Bible study?  When I come to God’s Word, is it with the attitude/prayer: “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (Psalm 119:18)?  These are searching questions, and I am very thankful for the example of the Psalmist’s commitment to the Scriptures, trusting that I might make it my own.
– Bruce Christian